Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Tax Products?
sub7 asks: "That time of the year is upon as again: Tax Season. Those of us living in the U.S. are busy fumbling with various forms with awkward names and meaningless garble on them. Being a lazy BOFH, I went to H & R Block to see how much it would cost for them to prepare and file my taxes. They estimated -at least- $175, if not more! I knew it was cheaper to buy some software to handle my taxes. So I headed down to my local office supply conglomerate and picked up Turbo Tax 2004 Premier for $69.99. Being an OSS user for nearly 6 years I have never even considered an OSS tax solution product (probably because I ph34r t4x s34s0n!). So I turn to Slashdot to ask: Are there any projects equivalent to Turbo Tax or the other tax products out there for the OSS community?"
Open Tax Solver
they certify the MATH is correct.v ersion/ind ex.php/t138.html
http://support.turbotax.com/forums/lofi
Accuracy of TurboTax Calculations. Intuit diligently works to ensure the accuracy of the calculations on every form prepared using TurboTax tax preparation software. If you are a registered user that has updated your Software with the most recent update available prior to filing your return and you pay an IRS or state penalty and/or interest solely because of a calculation error on a form prepared using the Software, and not as a result of, among other things, your failure to enter all required information accurately, willful or fraudulent omission or inclusion of information on your tax return, misclassification of information on the tax return, or failure to file an amended return to avoid or reduce an applicable penalty/interest after Intuit announced updates or corrections to the Software in time for you to file an amended return, then Intuit will pay you in the amount of the IRS or state penalty and/or interest paid by you to the IRS or state. (A "registered user" is a user who either registers his/her purchase with Intuit, or has purchased a license to use the Software directly from Intuit).
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
They won't do this because the IRS has already agreed to not compete with private industry.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
Yields how I've been doing my taxes for the past three years:
http://hrblock.com/goto/free
If you don't mind filling out your state paperwork yourself, it doesn't cost you a dime.
mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
A collection of irrelevant and questionable software?
Let's see, there are 11 projects found. Let's go through them:
Open Tax Solver: "Tax preparation software for use in the US, Canada, and UK". Okay, this looks like it might be promsing. But the fact that they are trying to do more than one country in the same product makes me question it a bit at least. And I'm not sure if using beta tax software is the best idea.
Canadian Payroll: "Calculates Canadian payroll taxes". Completely useless for (most) individuals, unless Canada's payroll taxes work differently than the US and the employees have to calculate it.
Payroll Perl Modules: "A Perl API for calculating payroll taxes". See above; not what is needed.
gTaxEstimator: "Tax preparation software". Okay, holds some promise, but do you really want to use a program called gTaxEstimator for something you can be sent to prison for if you screw up too badly?
reTax: Not what is needed; it calculates sales tax.
PHP Mortgage Calculator: Not what is needed
See-Commerce: Not even close to what is needed
MX Cart: Even further away from what is needed
Vista Nova osCommerce: Not what is needed
UCan: "Performs conversions of interest to travelers between the US and Canada." Not even close to what is needed.
PTax98: Oh, good, a program that will help you with 1998 taxes.
Anyway, none of these programs at least advertise features that are even close to what a commercial tax program does. None even say that they can do electronic submission.
So I call that link a red herring.